Hasta La Gadget!

Google has updated Google Maps to include more detailed building footprints, with 25m new graphics added to mapping across the US thanks to clever use of aerial imagery. The new footprints were not manually created, but instead use computer vision tech to figure out the shape of buildings based on photos normally used in the “satellite” view mode.

Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, and other locations have all been updated with the new data, which Google says is part of its attempt to make its product “as comprehensive as possible.” The new mapping will help users to orient themselves, locate landmarks, and general navigate between locations, Google suggests.

Google’s identification system can not only figure out the footprint of buildings, but their height as well. The company is yet to say what it might be using that data for, though some sort of equivalent to Apple’s Flyover could be in the works, overlaying rendered and photographic graphics over the top of more accurately scaled buildings.

The search giant is also calling on users to help it tidy up the data, which it says may still have the odd flaw. Google Map Maker, the existing geo-tweaking tool, can be used to correct bad data, or indeed to draw out the accurate footprint of your home or business and tell Google Maps exactly what that location is.

Google Maps fleshes out 25m building footprints with aerial magic is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A little over a week ago we reported that Apple’s Maps had seemingly outed a secret Taiwan military base which we assume did not sit well with the Taiwanese government. Now it seems that according to reports, China has stepped up the policing of “illegal maps” which has been defined (via Xinhua Tuesday)  as unauthorized maps that mistakes how the country’s borders are drawn, missing geographical features, and maps that reveal confidential information (or locations, if you’d rather). We’re not sure if this is in light of the recent incident with Apple Maps or if it is merely a coincidence, but it will be interesting to see how China goes about policing these “illegal maps”. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google’s Eric Schmidt believes that Apple should have kept Google Maps, Survey finds that 74% of respondents have no problems with Apple’s Maps app,

We know a native app for Google Maps is coming to iOS at some point, we just don’t know when. The latest rumor is that we’ll see it by the end of the year, and hopefully that’s true, but we’re sort of just taking things with a grain of salt until we get some solid evidence. In the meantime, a couple of screenshots from the upcoming Google Maps app have leaked.

First off, they’re mostly blurry and cropped quite a bit, so there’s not really a lot of details that we can gather just from the screenshots themselves. They mostly just show off the search bar at the top and a really blurry image of what looks to be a portion of either the turn-by-turn navigation or just directions.

However, San Francisco-based web developer Ben Guilds says that Google‘s new Maps app will be vector-based, and will have two-finger adjustment to any angle and zoom level. He also mentions that the app is “super fast” and will support the iPhone 5‘s larger 4-inch display. If the real app turns out to be anything like this, Apple is sure to have competition to its own maps offering.

Again, the leaked screenshots really don’t give us a lot of details on what to expect, but Cult of Mac actually put together a full-screen mockup of the native Google Maps app based on the leaked screenshots, which gives us a glimpse as to what the user interface might look like. In the meantime, you could try out the Google Maps iOS 6 hack if you have a jailbroken device.

Google Maps native app for iOS 6 screenshots leak is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Teething problems with Apple Maps failed to blunt mass market enthusiasm for the iPhone 5, new research suggests, with demand significantly higher than ahead of the iPhone 4S. 451 Research and ChangeWave Research surveyed 4,270 consumers in September, and found that those saying they were “very likely” to buy an iPhone 5 were almost double the number of those saying the same thing ahead of its predecessor’s release last year. Meanwhile, Windows Phone 8 could “make serious inroads in the smartphone industry” the researchers claim, surprisingly highlighting Samsung as likely to be the manufacturer that benefits the most.

While some suggested that the poor performance of Apple Maps might sour the iPhone 5′s appeal, consumers don’t appear to have reached the same conclusion. Only 3-percent of those iOS 6 users questioned said Maps presented a “very big problem” to them, while 90-percent said it was “no problem at all”; in fact, the change to the new Lightning port was more of an issue, with 6-percent saying the different connector was a “very big problem.” Only 26-percent said it was “no problem at all.”

“Despite the media attention surrounding both the Apple Maps issue and the Apple Lightning port issue, neither has had an impact on the massive numbers of buyers queuing up to buy the iPhone 5,” said Dr. Paul Carton, ChangeWave’s VP of Research. “Rather, the survey results show both issues hardly rank as bumps in the road.”

In fact, those who decided not to buy the iPhone 5 mainly did so because they were content with their existing device, according to the ChangeWave research. 61-percent said “their current cellphone is sufficient” while no respondents said it they were dissuaded because of “reported problems with Apple Maps.”

“Has Apple Maps been a problem for you?”:

As for Windows Phone 8, 2-percent of respondents said they were “very likely” to buy a phone running the OS in the future, while 7-percent said they were “somewhat likely”; integration with existing Windows apps and devices was the most cited reason for that decision, at 36-percent of the responses.

Most interestingly, though, despite Nokia and HTC being the two brands who have put the most effort into Windows Phone 8 device launches, it’s Samsung which gets most cited as the go-to manufacturer. Of the 55-percent who knew which Windows Phone 8 OEM they were likely to buy from, just over half said Samsung would be their brand of choice, with Nokia following in second place.

iPhone 5 appeal unblunted by Apple Maps says research is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There has been quite a bit of fuss lately over the quality of Apple’s Maps app. While it certainly was touted to be a powerful program at its unveiling, reports across the web has suggested that it leaves much to be desired. That being said, a recent survey conducted by a SEO ranking company has found that a pretty surprising 74% of those they surveyed said that they were fine with the Maps app. It should be noted that out of the 1,100 respondents, only 200 were chosen because they had iOS 6 and the Maps app. Granted this is a pretty small sampling, their response was considered significant due to their diversity.

Out of the 200 people they surveyed, 50.7% said that the issues surrounding Maps had not affected them personally, while 23.3% considered the app to be good enough for their needs, while 17.2% said that the issues were annoying but was not a deal breaker. The remaining percent of the users surveyed weren’t too happy about the Maps app, with some saying that it could affect their buying decision, while the rest said it put them off from buying another iPhone in the future. Apple is currently working on improving its Maps app although given the amount of data and years that Google has on them, we expect it might be a while before Apple finally plays catch up.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple reportedly knew about Maps problems prior to launch, Apple to get retail store employees to help improve their Maps app [Rumor],